Created between 1880-1890, a Long-Billed Curlew tops the exceptional ensemble of bird decoys on offer from the Teiger collection (estimate $300/500,000). The long-billed curlew is the largest American curlew species and was shot for food and sport throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. This decoy is one of a handful of survivors of a shorebird rig owned and gunned over by the work’s original owner, Dr. John Charles Phillips of Beverly, Massachusetts. The decoy may be intended to represent a female curlew, which has a longer and more deeply curved bill than the males. Other shorebird species from the Phillips rig were part of the collections of decoy connoisseurs Dr. James M. McCleery and Donal C. O'Brien Jr. A Pair of Canada Geese circa 1900 (estimate $300/500,000) and Rig of Ten Shore Birds (Yellowlegs) dating from the 19th Century (estimate $200/300,000) further distinguish the exceptional flock of decoys.

The superb American weathervanes on offer are topped by a charming Leaping Stag (pictured left, estimate $60/120,000), of which several other examples of this early vane form are known. This stag's drilled eye and large, arched rack of antlers differentiates the present work from deer designs offered by other, later vane manufacturers. In addition, an Angel Gabriel circa 1825 bears witness to the popularity of the trumpeting symbol on rural churches during the great religious revivals that swept America in the early decades of the republic (estimate $60/90,000). Found and possibly created in Hammond, New York, the present work is similar to most other examples of the trumpeting Archangel, which were individual efforts fashioned from sheet metal by local smithies.